After nearly three weeks of best of one play, the group stage for the second edition of the premier online tournament, The Defense, has concluded. Of the 24 original teams, sixteen will progress to the bracket stage, divided between the top and bottom two of each of the four groups. Beginning on August 1st, the bracket stage will begin and continue until August 12th.

Group 1
Heading off this group is mousesports and Darer Entertainment , the former of which continues to certify themselves as one of the finest European teams, while the latter has regained some prominence, following their slacking performance at DreamHack Summer. Coming up in third is Evil Geniuses , who fell short of overcoming mouz and Darer. We haz Asian came up in fourth place with flawed, but promising results for their first showing as a team.

Group 2
Finishing as the undisputed dominant team of their group, compLexity Gaming cleaned their competition out, with a five-to-zero final standing. Moscow Five came in second with a respectable standing, with only one loss to coL. Much like WhA from Group 1, uebelst-gamynG finished with a respectable first appearance as a team. Meanwhile, Absolute Legends , known as not only the greatest team from Australia, but one of the best-performing teams in the world, managed to barely scrape past the group stage in fourth place, with two wins and three losses.

Group 3
Finishing in a tied first place were the two nemesis world-class teams of mTw and Natus Vincere , with the same point recognition, but the latter managing to overpower the former in their one-match showdown. The long-standing but quiet team of Storm Games Clan finished in third, with having lost to the two group leaders. Coming in fourth was Team Empire , which managed to overtake Fnatic EU and NEXT.kz to advance.

Group 4
Much like their fellow American counterparts from Group 2, Quantic Gaming led the pack with a five-to-zero final standing, putting them in a comfortable position in the upper bracket of the group stage. Counter Logic Gaming , the group favorite, came in second place, having lost to Quantic and Copenhagen Wolves . Incidentally, POTM bottom , Power Rangers and HelloMoto finished with a three-way-tie third place standing, but HM is not to continue on.